Labor's faceless man reveals Rudd 'expulsion' fantasy

11 November 2010 — 9:53am

Labor escaped a potentially fatal derailment two weeks into the 2010 election campaign.

In Confessions of a Faceless Man, Australian Workers Union national secretary Paul Howes reveals that on July 30 he drafted what he describes as "a set of charges against Kevin (Rudd) to justify expelling him from the party".

"I'll never file them but it makes me feel better," Howes writes in his account of the campaign published by Melbourne University Press.

Bitterness ... Paul Howes.Credit:Andrew Meares

The move came after a series of damaging leaks to the media about Julia Gillard which the union boss blames on Rudd.

In the book, which is largely based on a diary Howes kept during the campaign, he expresses great bitterness about the role of Rudd in dragging down Labor's political stocks.

On the day he writes his list of "charges", Howes laments: "I'm now certain Labor has lost.

"Abbott will become prime minister not because of some major mood for change but because of the vindictiveness of a former Labor prime minister who is determined to make sure that, if he can't be prime minister, then no one else on our side will either."

Howes - who's been described as one of the "faceless men" who plotted against Rudd - plays down his role in the downfall of the former leader, saying it has been overstated in the media.

He admits a Labor minister phoned him on the night of the coup to canvass the union movement's support for a leadership change and that the previous Sunday he had talked down caucus members from mounting a challenge.

But as he describes it, "the die had been cast - the Labor caucus was sick to the back teeth of Rudd".

The union leader's mood rollercoasters during the campaign, peaking early on with his role in creating the Addams Family send-up - the Abbott Family - which went on to become a YouTube sensation, notably featuring Tony Abbott as Gomez and Barnaby Joyce as Uncle Fester.

Much of the book is spent dwelling on the role of "has-been" Labor leader Mark Latham, who was hired by the Nine Network to be a reporter for 60 Minutes and spent the campaign taking public digs at his former party.

In a brief post-mortem of the campaign, Howes is highly critical of Labor for its climate change policy - the since abandoned idea of creating a "citizens' assembly" on the issue.

He also suggests Gillard failed to provide compassionate leadership on treatment of refugees, suggesting she could have learned from the example of Bob Hawke, who said during the campaign: "We're all bloody boat people. That's how we found the place."

Howes points to the future of the Gillard government, backing Hawke's claim that it will be a long-term government with a worthy reform agenda.

However, he highlights a few hurdles Australia's first female prime minister will face over the term.

The right-wing powerbroker sides with the party's left in calling for a change in policy on gay marriage, saying Labor needed to move on from a view of marriage dating from when Queen Victoria sat on the throne.

"I think things may have moved on since then. Gillard will hopefully allow a conscience vote for Labor MPs on gay marriage," he says, adding that he believed a majority of caucus would support it.

He also queries Labor's centrepiece election promise - the national broadband network - which he believes will eventually be privatised.

"I couldn't understand the rationale of building a state-run enterprise to deliver it," he writes, though he notes a "growing buzz" about the $43 billion project.

Despite being a little disjointed, Howes' book is an insightful addition to the conga line of analyses of the past 18 months in Australian politics.